Portrait bust of Lady Elizabeth Jocelyn, Viscountess Castlereagh, later Marchioness of Londonderry (1813-1884)
George Gammon Adams (Staines 1821 - Chiswick 1898)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1848
Materials
Marble
Measurements
740 x 530 mm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Mount Stewart, County Down
NT 1221055
Summary
Sculpture, marble; Portrait bust of Lady Elizabeth Jocelyn, Viscountess Castlereagh, later Marchioness of Londonderry (1813-1884); George Gammon Adams (1821-1898); 1848. A portrait bust of Lady Elizabeth Frances Charlotte Jocelyn, widow of the 6th Viscount Powerscourt, who in 1846 married Frederick Vane, Viscount Castlereagh, later 4th Marquess of Londonderry. One of a pair of portraits of Castlereagh and his new wife, commissioned from George Gammon Adams after the sculptor had returned from a period studying in Rome.
Full description
A portrait bust of of Lady Elizabeth Jocelyn, Viscountess Castlereagh, later Marchioness of Londonderry (1813-1884), depicting the sitter dressed in a loose robe, with a Greek key-patterned belt, her head turned to her left. On a turned and waisted marble socle with a cartouche, signed and dated on the back. A companion to the portrait bust of Viscount Castlereagh by Adams (NT 1221056). Lady Elizabeth Frances Charlotte Jocelyn (1813-84) was the daughter of Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden and the Hon. Maria Frances Catherine Stapleton. In 1836 she married the Irish peer Richard Wingfield, 6th Viscount Powerscourt, but was left a widow, with three sons, on his death in 1844. In 1846 she married Frederick Vane, then Lord Castlereagh, who became 4th Marquess of Londonderry on his father’s death in 1854. The couple had no children, which meant that on the 4th Marquess’s death in 1872, the title passed to Frederick’s half-brother George. Lady Elizabeth and her new husband spent much of the early years of their marriage at her first husband’s family seat, Powerscourt in Co. Wicklow, where her eldest son was now the 7th Viscount. In 1855 Elizabeth converted to the Roman Catholic faith, which would prove a lasting consolation to her in the latter years of her marriage and her subsequent long widowhood. Although she and her husband remained devoted, for the last ten years of his life the 4th Marquess was afflicted by mental illness, which eventually saw him incarcerated in an institution. George Gammon Adams was a successful mid-Victorian sculptor, who began his career working in the Royal Mint and had by the 1840s begun to work independently. In 1846 he travelled to Rome, where he briefly studied under John Gibson. Adams continued throughout his career to make and exhibit medals, and as a monumenetal sculptor received a number of public commissions. He was also highly successful as a portrait sculptor, and seems to have made something of a specialism of portraits of army officers. Adams’ posthumous bust of the Duke of Wellington was especially highly praised by contemporaries. The busts of Lord and Lady Londonderry were the first portraits that Adams is known to have made, after his return from Rome. Their public display at the 1849 Royal Academy exhibition would therefore have been especially important for the sculptor, for whom the RA exhibition would have been an opportunity to show off his credentials, following his return to London. The two portrait sculptures were presumably commissioned by Fredrick Stewart to celebrate his marriage. The bust of Elizabeth was completed in 1848 and a year later that of her husband, who had also commissioned a fine painted portrait of his new wife in 1847 (NT 1220983). Perhaps Lady Castlereagh was proud of her profile since, in both painting and sculpture, she is shown turning her face to her left. Jeremy Warren August 2022
Provenance
Presumably commissioned by Frederick, 4th Marquess of Londonderry (1805 - 1872); by descent; on loan to the National Trust from Lady Mairi Bury (1921-2009), from 1976; accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Trust, 2013.
Marks and inscriptions
On back of bust:: G.G. ADAMS Sc./ LONDON. 1848.
Makers and roles
George Gammon Adams (Staines 1821 - Chiswick 1898), sculptor
References
Mount Stewart 1950: Inventory and Valuation of the Contents of Mount Stewart, Newtownards, County Down, the property of the Marchioness Dowager of Londonderry, D.B.E. Prepared for the purpose of insurance by H. Clifford-Smith, M.A. F.S.A. 1950, p. 4. Royal Academy 1849: The exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts. MDCCCXLIX. (1849). The eighty-first., 1849, p. 53, no. 1272. Roscoe 2009: I. Roscoe, E. Hardy and M. G. Sullivan, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, New Haven and Yale 2009, p. 5, no. 32.